Ryō Sakurai
Ryō Sakurai (桜井 良 Sakurai Ryō) is Tōō's shooting guard. He is known as a delusional self-blamer. Appearance Sakurai has a rather frail posture and sometimes walks with his head sticking out. He has short, light brown hair and has large eyes. When his different personality comes out, he is often seen pouting his mouth. He wears the black and red Tōō High jersey with the number 9. Personality Sakurai is a critically delusional self-blamer. He thinks that everything is his fault, especially regarding Aomine, because they are in the same class. When he fails at something, he apologizes a lot, even feeling sorry that he's alive.Kuroko no Basuke chapter 39, page 12 He also doesn't want to inconvenience anyone, afraid that they may be mad at him. When he scores a three-pointer, he whispers sorry. Similar to Hyūga's clutch personality, Sakurai has shown a personality that is almost the opposite of his usual self. He enters this form when the match heats up and even more when he starts to get annoyed by Hyūga's consistent successful shooting. He begins to think that he should stop and counter Hyūga himself and is egoistical. The same as Hyūga, Sakurai's shot also gets better.Kuroko no Basuke chapter 118, page 7 He also gets extremely competitive and instead of thinking of himself that he is weaker and lower than somebody, he now thinks that he is obviously better than his opponent. When it comes to shooting, Sakurai hates to lose.Kuroko no Basuke chapter 118, page 9 When out of court Sakurai is shown to be a good cook, his specialty is making bento (lunch boxes). Aomine gave Sakurai's name as the teammate he is probably closest to "because his bento is good". Sakurai enjoys drawing manga as his non basketball-related hobby. Story Interhigh preliminaries Final league Sakurai is first seen at Tōō's training. Imayoshi asks Sakurai why Aomine isn't present, because they are in the same class. Sakurai apologizes and says that he tried to stop him, but failed. He apologizes again for being alive, to which Imayoshi reacts with shock. Sakurai continues apologizing and degrading himself, while Imayoshi keeps saying that it's okay. Winter Cup Round 1 Sakurai is a starter in their first match of the Winter Cup, against Seirin. When Seirin gains the ball and tries to grab the first point, the pressure defense of Tōō leads to Sakurai being able to steal the ball from a bounce pass from Izuki. He dribbles to the other side of the court and pulls up for his quick release three pointer, with Hyūga unable to block him. But instead of shooting, he passes to Aomine instead, giving an assist for Aomine's alley-oop.Kuroko no Basuke chapter 115, page 13 Sakurai is later able to score a three pointer from Wakamatsu's rebound. After Seirin's time-out, Hyūga gets the ball. Sakurai thinks by himself that he's a dangerous shooter but that it's okay because he's standing pretty far. Hyūga asks him if he's sure not to guard so thight. He quickly takes a step away from the basket, jumps and scores a three-pointer. Sakurai is amazed by the speed of his move. Hyūga approaches him and tells him that not only the freshmen have improved.Kuroko no Basuke chapter 117, page 15 After Hyūga scores again with his Barrier Jumper, Susa asks Sakurai if he needs help guarding him. Sakurai says that he's fine taking care of him on his own, which surprises Susa. Sakurai receives the ball and is marked by Hyūga. Sakurai is stuck and Susa comes to his aid, but Sakurai refuses and shoots with his quick-release shot, but this time it is way faster than normal, cuasing Hyūga to think that it'll go out for sure. But against all odds, the shot goes in. Sakurai turns to Hyūga and arrogantly says that he'll win against him, just because he's better.Kuroko no Basuke chapter 118, page 9 Imayoshi comments that Sakurai changes when he absolutely doesn't want to lose, because he hates losing. Sakurai's arrogance annoys Hyūga a lot and both players counter each other again and again with their respective shots. Nearing the end of the first quarter, Sakurai makes another shot and Tōō outruns Seirin with three points. After Kuroko's action, Hyūga responds and ties the score. Finals Skill Sakurai is known for his quick-release shot. This is just his regular shot (that is extremely accurate), but releases the ball very quick, throwing his defense off balance. This gives him a great advantage, because the defense has a hard time blocking it because it is so quick (a normal shot would always be blocked, with his posture). When Sakurai starts to behave differently, in a way similar to Hyūga's clutch ability, Sakurai's shot gets quicker and better. Although such a shot is normally hard to imitate, Kise was able to copy Sakurai's move in Kaijō's match against Tōō.Kuroko no Basuke chapter 64, page 12 Sakurai is also quite capable at stealing, as he stole the ball multiple times in Tōō's matches against KaijōKuroko no Basuke chapter 67, page 9 and SeirinKuroko no Basuke chapter 115, page 11. Trivia *On the first character poll, Sakurai ranked 14th, with 363 votes. On the second poll, he ranked 22nd, with 157 votes. *According to the CHARACTERS BIBLE: **His motto is "Don’t do bad things to people that have been done to you". **His favorite food is Loquat. **His hobby is drawing manga. **His specialty is making character bento. Quotes *''I'll be the one to win, 'cause I'm better, hmph! ''(to Junpei Hyuga ) References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Players Category:Tōō Academy Category:SG